Barriers of all types are used throughout the world to prevent intrusion into restricted areas or retain personnel or goods within restricted areas. Intruders include unwanted personnel, animals, vehicles, and the weather. At times personnel and goods must enter or leave restricted areas, resulting in the requirement for at least part of the barrier to be movable. Movable barriers, such as gates, doors, and movable portions of walls, allow passage out of and into restricted areas. Humans have been used to move movable barriers. In many areas of the world they still do. However, barrier operators have been developed to replace the need for humans to supply the motive force needed to move movable barriers.
Barrier operators are abundant and diverse in design, and available from many manufacturers. These barrier operators typically utilize common elements. One common element is a chain or rail that mechanically interfaces with a motive source that supplies the motive force to move the movable barriers. Due to the inherent nature of these chain and rail systems, requirements for the motive source are demanding. The chain and rail systems are heavy and maintenance intensive, generate great frictional drag, are vulnerable to weather conditions, require special installation skills, and demand extra reinforcement of barriers to handle stresses inherent with the systems.
The motive sources typically used with barrier operators generally are electrical motors. These motors typically are either DC, or high voltage single phase or three phase AC. Unfortunately, these motors have associated issues that adversely affect barrier operators. For instance, the DC motors tend to be short lived and have high maintenance requirements. The single phased and three phase high voltage AC motors require local connections to high voltage, electrical power sources having voltage ratings such as 115, 230, or 460 volts with associated danger introduced to the region of the barrier operators. Also, control by prior art barrier operators of barriers is limited resulting in poor performance in positioning the barrier, and accelerating or decelerating the barrier.
Prior art barrier operators have also performed poorly under emergency conditions. For instance, deaths have resulted due to emergency medical personnel being unable to move barriers because the medical personnel did not have access codes or the primary source of power for a barrier operator failed.
Providing power to barrier operators has created logistical problems as well. The expense of running a power line to the barrier operator or using elaborate remote based power systems are common problems. Another common problem arises from the harsh environments inflicted on some barrier operators. These environments include extreme cold requiring added equipment to maintain an environment suitable for operation.
Attempts have been made to remedy some problems with barrier operators. However, these attempts have been impractical or have been limited to specialized applications. A solution to the multifaceted problems involved with barrier operators which can be applied to broad classes of barriers has been absent from prior art barrier operators. The present invention fulfills these needs and further provides other related advantages.